Just a Dream
by Kitty9
Summary: Morty wakes up to some very confusing news. Was it really all just a dream?
1. Chapter 1

The first thing that comes back to you is your hearing or that's what he was always told. He had never actually passed out to find the truth. Now he knew it was real. His eyes were still closed as he heard his mom, dad, and sister talking. They were discussing dinner. Who was going to stay here while the others got food. Where was here? Why didn't they ask him what he wanted? He was hungry too.

Finally he let out a groan which caught his guest's attention immediately.

"Morty?" He heard his mom. "Morty honey!"

Morty only let out another sound as a pain started to form in his stomach.

Then the sense of touch, someone was gripping his right hand…and his left hand. Both hands were being squeezed. He was sure someone else was touching his foot. He wanted to tell them to stop squeezing so hard but couldn't talk. Then there was air blowing into his nose. It was forcing itself into his nose, he couldn't stop it. He let out another groan, trying to talk to the world. To let them know he was uncomfortable.

"It's alright honey." He felt a hard squeeze to his left hand. "We're right here." His mother kept talking. "Jerry go get the doctor." His mom said forcefully.

He wanted to sleep, he felt so groggy.

Finally he was able to open his eyes, the dark room turning into a white well lit room. He looked up at his mom who had tears streaming down her face. "Oh Morty!" His mom said ecstatically touching his cheek.

"Mom…" Morty said shakily then looked around at his surroundings. He was in a hospital, a Earth hospital. "Why...why am I in a Earth hospital?"

His mother looked taken aback by the question, "You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"We were in a car accident four months ago." Summer said.

Morty didn't understand, he…was just awake. He didn't remember the accident but four months? He was just out with Rick yesterday. His mouth opened, about to ask questions when a doctor walked in with Jerry following behind.

The doctor walked up next to him shining a light into the teen's eyes. "Hey there Morty, how ya doing?" the doctor asked smiling.

"Good, I guess." Morty said.

The man pulled out a stethoscope as he listened to his heart then lungs. "Do you feel weak or any pain?"

"I have a little pain in my stomach." Morty said.

"That's unusual. You're stomach was fine when you came in." The doctor felt around Morty's stomach stopping when Morty flinched. "Alright, I'm going to order some xrays and make an appointment for the physical therapist to meet you. Four months is a long time to go without walking. Your muscles won't be what they used to."

Morty didn't know what look he had on his face but it must have been of disbelief.

"Don't worry. You will be up and walking before you know it. Do you have any other questions?"

Morty looked around the room, his mom, his dad, Summer…then it hit him. "Where's Rick?"

"Who?" the doctor asked looking up at Beth and Jerry for clarification.

"Rick. Where is he? Is he in the garage?" It would be like him to not visit often. Morty would believe that.

"Who's Rick?" Beth asked.

"You know! Grandpa Rick!"

"Is he talking about your father?" Jerry asked Beth.

"Yeah, where is he?" How could his mom forget the man she always seemed to idolize?

"Honey." Beth said, "You never met him. He left when I was younger. I got the call two days before the accident. He was found in a hotel outside of town."

Then Jerry pretend to sneeze saying, "Drug overdose" which got him a glare from Beth.

"No, we were just on the Nebula Galaxy collecting shards." Morty said. He remembered it too vividly. "Then we ran into gromflomites who almost caught us but they missed Rick and hit my back with a paralyzing dart. They caught me and kneed me in the... the"

"The imagination can be quite exquisite when you are young." The doctor said.

Morty gently touched his stomach. He was kneed in the stomach.

The two looked up at the doctor who motioned toward the door. They were whispering amongst themselves. Suddenly Morty found it hard to breath. His vision was tunneling as he felt the world spinning. "This is a joke." Morty mumbled. "Summer, you know Rick, right?"

"No, never met the guy before the funeral. He looked super creepy. You should be glad you didn't have to go." Summer said texting on her phone.

Morty started choking on air as he tried to piece everything together. Nothing made sense. He went to jump out of the bed falling to the ground. He felt ill, his stomach was twisting. He felt an arm grab him but he tore it away, vomiting to the ground. He felt someone touch him trying to sooth him. "I…can't…breath…I…" He really couldn't breath.

"Deep breaths Morty. Listen to my voice. Take long deep breaths."

Morty tried to focus on the voice. He attempted to follow it's command, taking deep breaths. Something grabbed him from behind, he shoved his fist at it, trying to get it away.

Morty tried to think everything through, nothing made sense. Finally he passed out falling over.

He woke up the next day to the white room again. His parents and sister were gone. A nurse walked in looking shocked to see the teen up, "Good morning dear."

"Good Morning...where's my family?" Morty asked.

"You attempted to get up yesterday and punched your mother pretty good before passing out. You gave her quite a black eye." The woman started changing the IV bag.

"Oh."

"To answer your question, your family has to go to work and school during the day. They took a lot of time at the beginning and can't take time off anymore. They will be back around three." The woman said. "Your physical therapist will be up in an hour. People are always disoriented when they wake up from a coma after several months." The nurse said. "Do you like animals? Your parents sometimes brought your cute little dog in here to visit you." the nurse said changing the subject.

Morty sighed, maybe he did somehow make it all up…


	2. Chapter 2

_**Thank you for the reviews!  
**_

Physical therapy went well. To Morty's surprise he had a hard time moving, he shakily walked around while holding onto the therapist. Unlike Morty who felt like he was doing nothing right, the physical therapist was ecstatic at the outcome. Apparently, his parents were given a heavy discount at the hospital if they were allowed to test a new device that would help a person in a coma keep their muscle mass. The physical therapist was a part of the study as he took time throughout the session to take down notes.

Within a week, Morty was released from the hospital. Something that the hospital said was unheard of for coma patients. He was wheeled out of the hospital and to the car. Morty looked around, the sky was blue, birds where flying overhead, and yet, it still felt like something was off.

Once in the car, they were off.

"How about some ice cream?" Jerry asked.

Morty stared out the window. Everything looked the same, but everything felt off. It was as if life was too perfect.

"Jerry, he's been in a coma for four months. He wants to go home." Beth yelled.

"Actually." Morty whispered. "Ice cream sounds good." He was up for anything to keep from going home just yet. To keep him from finding out that he made it up. He wanted to feel this perfect day as much as possible before it went away.

Morty only got a scoop of vanilla. He didn't tell the doctor that his stomach was still bothering him. The x-rays had shown nothing so they weren't worried. The four sat down in silence, eating their ice cream.

It was like no one had anything to talk about or maybe they just had questions that they didn't want to ask.

Finally, they were driving home. Morty really needed to lay down, his stomach was starting to churn from the realization that he was almost there. He didn't want to go home.

The car parked in the driveway. All four stepping out at the same time. Jerry ran ahead to get the door while Beth stayed behind to walk beside him up to the door. Once inside, Morty knew instantly that the whole house was different. A small white dog ran up to him walking between his legs as it begged him to pet it.

"You want to go lie down?" Beth asked shooing the small dog away.

"No, I want to look around." Morty said walking toward the garage. He was about to turn the knob to the garage then stopped himself. He could feel his parents watching him, curious at what he was doing. He couldn't open the garage door, if he did, and Rick's stuff wasn't there then that just proved he made it all up. If he didn't open the door, then Rick could be there.

Instead he dropped his hand from the door, "I'm going to bed." He whispered then walked toward the stairs.

"Do you want anything for dinner?" Beth asked.

"No." Morty said walking off, he wanted Rick to be back. He walked up the stairs, looking over at the furnace room where Rick stayed. Then he let out a small sigh walking into his room. His room looked the same. Everything was in it's place. He slowly walked over to his bed, laying under the small dog jumped onto the bed, not leaving his side.

"Hey Snuff...Snowball." Morty said patting the dog as it curled up next to him. If Rick was never there, then the dogs would have never taken over.

To Morty's surprise, he fell right to sleep.

The day had taken a lot more out of him than he thought.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Once again, thanks for the reviews! :)**_

Morty awoke to a dark room. It must have been late at night. Morty turned on his elephant lamp he kept next to his bed. He then sat up rubbing his eyes. Something caught his eye on the elephant lamp. It was the right trunk, the right trunk was still there. He remembered Rick stumbling in drunk when he first arrived. He hit it, making it fall to the ground. Morty never found that piece that broke off…

But then again, if Rick never showed up then it never would have happened.

He stood out of the bed, he found himself walking to the furnace room. His hand grabbed the door knob. Rick had to be in here. He had to have some trace that he was here. Morty slowly opened the door. This was it, the moment of truce. The room was empty, save the furnace in the corner and a cot that was used when either Summer or himself had friends over. Morty walked over to the empty cot, sitting on it. It didn't smell like alcohol or chemicals like the room had in the past.

Did he really make everything up?

Wait, the scar! When the two went out on an adventure, Morty had accidentally gouged his leg on a large metal piece sticking out when they walked through an abandoned ship. Rick didn't want to abandon their mission that time. They were finding a lot of valuable items. He hastily used the low setting of his laser gun to cauterize Morty's leg so they could continue their search, leaving a nasty scar.

Sure enough, it was there. The same scar, the same wound. He stared at it. Touched it.

"Everything okay?"

Morty looked up, it was his mom.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Something bugging you?"

"Where did I get this scar from?" Morty asked.

"The car accident was pretty bad. It was probably from that. I got this one on my torso." His mom lifted her shirt just enough to show a scar on the right of her torso. It was different though. Hers was more clean. It didn't look like a hack job.

Morty sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"Everything." Morty whispered.

"You hungry?" his mom asked.

Yes, was the answer he wanted to give. He was starving, "No" was the answer he gave. "Can we see Rick's gravestone tomorrow?" Morty asked. Maybe that was what he needed to get over this. He had to prove to himself that Rick was indeed dead.

"You sure? You never met him."

"Yeah…maybe…I don't know. Did he have anything with him when he was found. Did the police give you his items?"

"Yeah, clothes and a few other items he had on hand."

"Can I see them?"

"I think it's best you get some sleep." His mother said.

"We used to go to space together. Rick and I traveled the galaxies."

"Honey, my dad could barely figure out how to function on his own without drugs. He was smart, but I doubt he ever went to space."

"He was smart. He made spaceships and…"

Beth looked away, as if wanting to believe what Morty said, "No Morty. He was an alcoholic who abused drugs."

"What drug did he die from?" Morty asked.

"They don't know. It was a new one they had never seen."

"That's because he got it from another dimension!" Morty said excitedly. Morty stood up abruptly. "He…he made me change dimensions. It's so obvious! I don't know how or why, but I was mixed up with another Morty. I'm not supposed to be here."

"You aren't making sense." His mom said.

"I…I'm from another dimension. You aren't my real mom. I need Ricks stuff. I just need the portal gun."

"No, you aren't going anywhere near his items."

And that conversation was how he found himself in a psychologist's office the next day. Talking to a monotone person who was trying to play along. Pretend like he knew what Morty was talking about. Then they were driving to a pharmacy to pick up a prescription to help Morty. Morty played along. He pretend to take them, leaving them under his tongue until he could spit it out in the toilet and flush it. With each week of going to the psychologist, he pretend to forget everything.

The scar? From the car accident four months ago.

Space? Only NASA can get to space.

Aliens? Are only in movies.

Rick? Who was Rick? Certainly not someone that he knew.

Life? Very normal…and very boring.


	4. Chapter 4

_**I can't say it enough, thanks for the reviews!**_

It would be several months before Morty was allowed to be alone at the house. He waved his parents off who had decided to go out on a date night. Morty urged it after them focusing on him for so many months, they deserved some time out of the house.

Once they were gone, he went to their room. He needed to find that bag. Morty knew his mom, she wouldn't get rid of Rick's items. He tore their room apart, tearing clothes off hangers, looking under the bed.

Nothing.

The attic! Morty went to the drop door using a step tool to lower the ladder. He ran up as fast as he could. He had a limited amount of time left. His parent would be back any time now. He tore through the attic until he found it. A paper bag with the words 'Rick Sanchez, final property.'

Morty tore through the bag. He heard the front door open. He knew it was his parents. He scattered the clothes out. Lab coat, khakis, blue shirt…then there it was. The portal gun! Morty stared at it, feeling a tear come to his eyes. He didn't make it up.

"Morty!" He heard both his parents yell down the stairs.

He had to hurry, the charge in the portal gun was nearly gone. He quickly put in the coordinates to the dimension he knew so well. Firing the familiar green portal. He was going home! Morty ran through it as he heard someone walking up the ladder.

Morty fell to his knees as he stepped out in front of his house. The familiar spaceship sitting in the garage.

He was home!

Morty ran into the house. He couldn't believe it, he was home. He started to run around the house looking for anyone. "Mom! Dad! Rick! Summer! I'm home!" no answer.

Morty ran up the stairs. He opened his parents room, no one. Summer's room, no one. Rick's room, it held his items but no Rick. Morty sighed. His mom must be working, Summer in school, but he didn't know where his dad or Rick could be.

Morty looked at the portal gun still in his hands. It was now out of battery. He was stuck here either way. He walked to his room opening the door. To his surprise he heard beeping. He looked in to see himself laying on the bed. Hooked to the machines he was on in the hospital. Morty ran up to the other Morty. This one was thinner than him.

He looked up when he heard his door close. There standing inside with him was Rick.

"Rick!" Morty said ecstatically. "I'm home! I woke up in a dimension where you had died. But I'm home now. Somehow I switched places with this Morty. I don't know how it happened. You can help me bring him back to the other dimension."

Rick looked shocked. "Yeah Morty. I can help you." Rick walked over. "So…did anyone else see you?"

"No you're the only one home. Where's everyone? I can't wait to see them!" Morty said.

"Good." Rick put an arm around Morty's shoulder."


	5. Chapter 5

**_Thanks for the reviews! :)  
_**

"Rick!" Morty said ecstatically. "I'm home! I woke up in a dimension where you had died. But I'm home now. Somehow I switched places with this Morty. You can help me bring him back to the other dimension. We can get all this figured out!"

Rick looked shocked. "Yeah Morty. I can help you." Rick walked over. "So…did anyone else see you?"

"No you're the only one home. Where's everyone?" Morty questioned.

"Good." Rick put an arm around Morty's shoulder.

"I got home with the portal gun. It's out of battery now." Morty said showing the gun to Rick. Morty was waiting for Rick to make a snide remark about how he always needed praise. Or maybe a snide remark about how dumb his idea was.

"Yeah so you did." Rick said grabbing the uncharged gun from Morty's hands.

Something was off, Morty could tell. Rick was being too nonchalant about this. He watched as Rick pulled out his own portal gun.

"Let's get this over with Morty." Rick said shooting a portal.

"Wait, how do you know what dimension he's from?" Morty backed away.

"Morty get back here." Rick said.

"No. You did this. You switched us."

"Morty, get over here." Rick attempted to grab Morty's arm as Morty backed further away.

"Why?" Morty squeaked out.

"Just get over here."

Morty attempted to open his bedroom door, it was locked from the outside.

"This is how it has to be." Rick said.

"No. I want to stay here." Morty slammed on the door, attempting to break it. He felt Rick grab him from behind. "No!" Morty squirmed until he could slide his arm out of Rick's grasp.

He ran across the room away from Rick. What could he do? Then he got an idea. He grabbed the elephant lamp and climbed onto the bed, holding the lamp above the sleeping Morty's face. "Open the door Rick!" He was ready to drop it.

"Morty don't be stupid. We both know you wont drop it."

Morty felt himself starting to panic, Rick was calling his bluff. "This lamp is very heavy. I broke my foot when I dropped it. It would crush his skull. Then you would have to let me stay."

"Morty, put the lamp down." Rick started walking toward him.

"S-stop Rick!" Morty screamed. He lifted the lamp in the air, "Op-open the door."

"Morty. Put the lamp down gently."

"Please Rick, I don't want to have to kill this Morty." Morty felt himself shaking. If burying himself wasn't enough, the thought of actually killing himself was making him sick.

"You don't have to Morty." Rick said. "We can talk." Rick pulled out the portal gun gently placing it in the middle of the room then started to walk closer. "Now lets talk."

"I have nothing to say. I just want to stay here."

"Okay." Rick said still getting closer.

"I don't want to go back."

"Okay."

"You're lying." Morty yelled, starting to shake. "Stop getting closer! Go open the door!"

"Just put the lamp down." Rick said still walking closer to Morty.

Morty had enough, he threw the lamp down onto the sleeping Morty. In his sudden rush of adrenaline he picked the lamp back up, continually slamming the lamp onto the sleeping Morty.

"No! Morty!" Rick ran to the bed. "You piece of shit!" Rick grabbed the lamp, it was too late for the Morty. He was dead.

"I...I" Morty stared at the now mangled Morty, realizing what he did. He backed away.

"Morty you fuck up!" Rick grabbed Morty's shoulders shaking him. "How could you?"

Morty felt himself starting to hyperventilate. "I...I..."

Rick was still holding his shoulders, "Morty you need to wake up."

"Wait...what?" Morty asked.

"Morty, you need to wake up. Come on, your mom's not going to let me stay anymore if I take you home like this."

"Rick, you aren't making sense." Morty cried out.

"That's it!" Rick said shaking Morty. "Come on Morty!"

Morty blinked and found himself feeling like he was moving. He blinked again and found himself sitting in a ship. Not just any ship, Rick's ship. Morty looked out of the ship, they were in space.

He heard a sigh of relief come from Rick.

"What's going on?" Morty asked.

"You were hit with a dart when we were running. It held a special drug that makes you have a really elaborate dream with your worse fears. If you don't break it within 48 hours in the real world you will stay lost in your mind forever."

"I don't get it."

"Yeah, me neither. It seems more like a stupid plot twist to an issue where there was no other way out. The dream bit is overrated if you ask me Morty. I-I mean, are you going to tell me to waist my time watching something and then just say it didn't happen? If you're going to do that then tell me ahead of time, like in the title or something!"

"So it never happened?" Morty stared outside of the ship.

"Yep, now lets go get some fucking ice cream!"

"Can we just go home? This was a lot to take in. I mean I just spent 8 months trying to..."

"Morty I'm going to cut you off right there. I don't care what you are about to say. Whatever you are about to say about your dumb dream isn't going to change the world or give any epiphanies."

Morty sighed, "Guess you're right."

"Morty, when will you learn? I'm always right."

 ** _Fin._**

 ** _I enjoy reading reviews about what people think will happen, and I will say you guys had pegged my alternate ending immediately. I always write two endings and reread them until I decide which one to use._**

 ** _I chose this ending, because it makes fun of the dream bit...and if you go deeper, it shows Morty's greatest fear is living in a world without Rick. Of course this was written before season 3 premiere where Morty flat out says life is better without Rick. But that's why this is fanfiction and not the real thing._**

 ** _Reviews are appreciated._**


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